Instagram Takes On Vine, Introduces Video on Instagram

Instagram, the hugely popular free photo-sharing application, has now added video capabilities to its repertoire. The new feature, simply called “Video on Instagram” lets people create 15-second videos with a ability to edit, add 13 new filters and share over popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr.

“What we did to photos, we just did to video,” Instagram’s co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom said at a press event at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters yesterday.

Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook for a whopping $1 billion last year, serves over 130 million users monthly, who have shared over 16 billion photos to date. There are over 1 billion “likes” on the platform each day.

The new feature pits Instagram head-on with rival social short-form video-sharing platform Vine. Vine was acquired by Twitter in October of last year. Anticipating Instagram’s move, Vine announced a slate of new features for its service.

There are several key differences in the rival apps though. Instagram offers 15-seconds of video as opposed to Vine’s 6-second limit. Vine on the other hand loops its videos, while Instagram doesn’t.